It took me a little longer to catch up with this recent and rather controversial limited series from Netflix, focusing on infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. Was it worth the watch?
Written by Ryan Murphy & Ian Brennan & David McMillan & Janet Mock & Reilly Smith & Todd Kubrak
Directed by Carl Franklin & Clement Virgo & Jennifer Lynch & Paris Barclay & Gregg Araki
Glenda Cleveland (to the police): "I called you for months and its too late. Y'all come too late."
Ryan Murphy's foray into the world of Netflix over the last three years with the type of shows he's chosen to do have been a mixed bag for some. As shows they've largely felt no different to the majority of his FX content and in some respects, the rather long title of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story could've easily been a lost season of American Crime Story. In fact, watching this series did remind me of the second season of that show, which had focused on Andrew Cunanan's murder of Gianni Versace. Tonally, this series wasn't that much different to it.
The first episode opened with Jeffrey Dahmer (Evan Peters) taking home his last victim, Tracy Edwards (Shaun J. Brown) with the intention of killing him. Only this time, Tracy managed to escape from Dahmer's grasp, alert the police and get Dahmer arrested to the relief and anger of his neighbour Glenda Cleveland (Niecy Nash), who had warned the police about Dahmer, only to have been ignored by them.
From the second to the seventh episodes, most of this limited series put the focus on Dahmer's childhood. We see him growing up as a strange kid with a morbid fixation on taxidermy, something which had been encouraged by his father, Lionel (Richard Jenkins). We also see Lionel marry another woman, Shari (Molly Ringwald), following the separation from Jeffrey's mother, Joyce (Penelope Ann Miller), whose own mental issues were depicted throughout the series.
On top of Jeffrey flunking high school, getting kicked out of the army, bouncing from various jobs and his volatile relationship with his religious grandmother, Catherine (Michael Learned), the show saw his descent into terror with an emphasis on some of his victims. Something that Dahmer was able to do due the shocking incompetence of the police force at the time a well as their lack of accountability following the fallout of Dahmer's crimes revealed.
This series made no bones about the fact that the majority of Jeffrey's victims were non white and along with Tracy Edwards, some of the victims largely emphasised throughout the series included Konerak Sinthasomphone (Kieran Tamondong), Steven Hick (Cameron Cowperthwaite), Ronald Flowers (Dyllon Burnside) and Tony Hughes (Rodney Burford). Most of these men died at the hands of Dahmer and the ones who survived him were deeply scarred by what Dahmer had done to them.
While family members of Dahmer's victims have been critical of this series, I'll admit this series has at least tried to be respectful to them as well as depicting the fallout of Dahmer's actions, his trial, life in prison, finding God as well as his own brutal death at the hands of a fellow inmate. Not to mention the dark shadow that his reign of terror had left on everyone, including Dahmer's own family.
- Other killers who factored into this miniseries within context to Dahmer were Ed Gein (Shane Kerwin) and John Wayne Gacy (Dominic Burgess).Ryan Murphy has previously depicted versions of Dahmer and Gacy in American Horror Story: Hotel.
- In spite of the controversy surrounding the show, it's become of Netflix's biggest hits in less than a month of its release.
- The end credits of the finale showed all seventeen victims of Dahmer.
- The episode titles for the episodes are Bad Meat, Please Don't Go, Doin' A Dahmer, The Good Boy Box, Blood On Their Hands, Silenced, Cassandra, Lionel, The Bogeyman and God Of Forgiveness, God Of Vengeance.
- Standout music: The song Please Don't Go by KC And The Sunshine Band was used a lot in this series.
- Chronology: From 1959 up until 1994.
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story made for an uncomfortable watch with a compelling set of performances from Evan Peters, Niecy Nash, Richard Jenkins and Rodney Burford to name a few here. Also given the success of the series, I wouldn't be shocked if another real life monster gets emphasized in a follow up show.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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